Yes, as we speak I am planning to buy an additional acre of land. This will not only ensure adequate feeds for my livestock but will act as a substitute grazing during long dry spells.

In my opinion, GiveDirectly does well to give us aid in form of cash to spend on anything that we choose to. For instance, I bought goats and food and clothing using my recent transfers.

I am a widow, and a mother of 6 kids; 4 boys and 2 girls. Initially, I used to live in another constituency before moving here two years ago. This is because my husband who was the bread winner passed on 10 years ago supposed to marry his elder brother according to the community customs. But my elder son was against this idea and this led to conflicts and we fled here for our safety. Since my husband passed away, I resorted to charcoal burning to fend for my family. But this business affected my health negatively causing chest problems and my elder son advised me to quit the job. In turn, he decided to support the family because he works as an electrician. Recently, when GiveDirectly came I felt a sense of relief. This is because I used KES 16000 on the purchase of two iron gates for the completion of my house that was built using the first transfer. Since livestock theft is prevalent in our area, I also spent KES 15,000 of my second transfer on building a goat house. This will not only prevent them from being stolen but also from being predated on by wild animals. I also spent some of it on the purchase of food and my kid's school uniforms. The remainder KES 20,000 I have saved with a plan to purchase an additional piece of land for livestock keeping and payment of my kid's school fee come next year.

I was overwhelmed with joy after realizing that I had received my transfer from GiveDirectly. I had eargly waiting for such an opportunity to transform my life for the better. I remember It was around 9 o'clock when I had gone to the shop to purchase sugar for breakfast preparation before going to the usual charcoal vending work. I had left my phone charging in the house and upon reaching home my helper breaks the good news that I had received my transfer. At first, I thought it was a prank and I had to confirm my account balance, I was surprised to realize it was the transfer.

The biggest difference in my daily life is that I now live a better life after fulfilling my desire of having an alternative source of livelihood for the family. I was able to starting goats rearing with the transfer. Previously, I was a charcoal vendor, a job that earns me very little income. The earnings from my job could just feed my family of six leaving the other needs unattended. This brought a lot of frustration since I lack enough money for the other needs. I am assured that I will no longer have to worry after starting a new reliable source of income.

I spent KES 7,000 to purchase a door for my house, this is because for a year I have been sleeping in the house without a door. This pauses a lot of security risky especially theft as most of my household's utensils were stolen having to buy new ones every now then was relatively costly. Similarly, I was living a fearful life since some bad people like rapiest could come during the night. I also used KES 18,000 to start goats rearing a future investment for the family, once they reproduction I would sell them to cater for any financial emergency. In addition, I bought new and proper bedding for myself since I was using an old and worn-out mattress which brought a lot of pain to the body that ruined my day's performance. I am planning to spend the remaining amount to boost my goats' rearing activity by purchasing more goats. This activity is profitable and less time-consuming compared to charcoal vending the job that I was doing before the transfer.